What Really Mattered
by Irhaboggles
Summary: No matter what anyone else said, the mother-daughter bond between Maleficent and Aurora was powerful and true. Yes it was weird, but they were bound by something even deeper and stronger than blood: love. So no matter what the world said, Maleficent and Aurora didn't care because, at the end of the day, they were all that really mattered.


"You will have a _real _mother now," Ingrith crooned at Aurora. Although Aurora knew that her words were well-meant, they still made her skin crawl. Real mother? As if Maleficent didn't already count? True, she wasn't exactly the most normal of mothers, but she was still a mother either way and that was, in Aurora's eyes, good enough. Again, although she knew that Ingrith was only trying to be welcoming, Auroura couldn't help but get really defensive every time anyone said something that implied that Maleficent was somehow less than, or less of, a mother just because she was a fairy. Aurora felt highly attached to and protective of Maleficent and she would not hear anyone speak against Maleficent being a fairy. What Maleficent _was_ and what she _did_, although closely intertwined, were not the same thing. Being a fairy did not dictate one's parental skills and, though it might've sounded vain, Aurora liked to think Maleficent had done a good job on her, and that was what really mattered.

But again, since Aurora knew Ingrith was only trying to be nice, she smiled and played along.

"Thank you," she told her soon-to-be mother-in-law, but underneath, she was silently insisting that no matter how motherly Ingrith became, she would never replace Maleficent. _Maleficent_ was Aurora's mother and nothing would ever change that…

ooo

"You went against your very nature, raising that human child. Now it's time to look after your own kind," Borra encouraged Maleficent. He had never been shy about his disdain for Maleficent's bond with Aurora. Then again, he had never been shy about much of anything at all! But Maleficent couldn't help but feel especially rubbed the wrong way whenever Borra brought up Aurora, or the "oddity" in Aurora being her child. Of course everyone knew there was no genetic ties between them, but everyone also knew that Maleficent had been the one to raise Aurora, so Maleficent always felt a bit annoyed when people would take a dig at their relationship. Whether the person expressed disgust, disdain, amusement or annoyance didn't matter. Anyone who tried to insinuate that Maleficent was somehow less of a mother or that Aurora was somehow less of a daughter just because they were different species really got underneath Maleficent's feathers.

"I raised her. She is my child. Plain and simple. Nothing else should matter," she told Borra coldly. He raised an amused eyebrow before repeating himself, insisting that it was not natural from cross-species parent-child relationships.

"It's time to look after your own kind," he said.

"My own kind?" Maleficent replied frostily. She knew exactly what Borra meant, but god did she _hate_ hearing it! Her own kind? Aurora _was _her own kind. Perhaps not literally, but in some way, Aurora _was _her own kind. It was what had drawn them together in the first place and it was what had made their love endure and prosper for so long despite all the odds stacked against them. Besides, in some strange sense, they were both children of both worlds, fay and human. Maleficent was a fairy who had befriended a human and Aurora was the reverse. They were both hybrids, in that sense, bound by the similarity in their history and allegiance.

No, Aurora _was _her kind and anyone who said anything different was a _fool_! It was perfectly natural for Maleficent to care for Aurora because Aurora was _hers_. Maybe not in blood, but in _soul _and love, and that was what really mattered at the end of the day…

ooo

"Maleficent! STOP!" Aurora begged, stepping between the Dark Fairy and the human queen. "This isn't you!"

"You do _not_ know me!" Maleficent snarled back at her, seconds away from lashing out at Aurora the same way she'd lashed out at everyone else.

"But I _do_!" Aurora pleaded, close to tears. "You're my _mother_!" And in that one single word, the entire world stopped and changed at the same exact time. In a paradoxical cycle of change and stability, that one word caused a transformation inside both mother and daughter. For all the struggles they'd been through, both together and alone and because of outside forces and each other, at the end of the day, they really were both still mother and daughter plain and simple. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else was true. They were mother and daughter and that was that.

But to hear Aurora declare it out loud with such raw emotion and passion made it so much more than just "that was that". Even though "that was that" was still at the center of their relationship, Aurora's anguished declaration screamed out so much more. Maleficent was her mother. Her friend, guardian, teacher, protector, advisor, confidante and role model. Maleficent was her mother. Not Queen Leah or Queen Ingrith. Maleficent. And for Maleficent to hear that made her feel so alive! So loved… And valued! It was the first time she heard something that made sense. It was one word, but hearing it just felt so right and good that it was like the entire rest of the world finally had been made clear.

It made her feel like all of those years of suffering had finally actually paid off and really meant something in the end. Even though hearing Aurora call her "mother" had never been an end goal, to hear it was everything that Maleficent had ever wanted. To hear Aurora call her mother made Maleficent feel special, above even Queens Leah and Ingrith. It made her feel so good and warm inside. It made her feel so happy and proud and honored and touched. It was just such a powerful statement, so simplistic yet so earth-shattering. This world that had been insistent against trans-species adoption had just received the ultimate act of defiance, the child of one world crying out about the parent of another and insisting that parent belonged to her more than anyone else in either world. _That_ was powerful. _That_ was special. _That_ was defiant. _That_ was love.

And Maleficent got to return the favor not too long after.

"Phillip!" she snapped, and the young prince immediately turned his attention on her. "Do you love my daughter?" although she had been asking, just to check and hear it confirmed again so she could properly bless their union, she had also said it just to have an excuse to finally call Aurora her own, her child, her _daughter_, _her _daughter. Not Stefan's. Not Ingrith's. Not anyone else's except Maleficent's. Aurora was _her _daughter. And she wanted to finally be able to say that out loud, so she did. _Do you love my daughter? _

And Aurora had been equally ecstatic to hear it. She had no words to describe it, but the chill and tingle and rush that surged up and down her spine and through her chest and all over her body when Maleficent called her "daughter" just could not be understood by an outside perspective. There was something so deeply and intensely powerful, passionate, personal and moving that Aurora felt herself bursting with love, pride and joy at being called "daughter". It felt so right. It made her feel good. For the first time in her life, everything seemed to all be coming together.

_Yes I am! _she thought to herself. _I am! I am Maleficent's daughter! Perhaps not by blood, but by love, and there is no greater force or bond than that… I am her daughter, not by any legal standing or logic, but by every rhyme and reason in the universe. It was not the woman who gave birth to me or even the woman, or women, I grew up with. It was the one who was always there for and with me, present in my life. She is the one who is my mother. It is not Queen Leah nor is it my three aunties. My mother is Maleficent! My mother is Maleficent! And I am her child._

ooo

And through the years, there would be many more onlookers and gawkers who were either surprised, amazed, curious, scared and/or disgusted to hear that a Dark Fairy had raised a human child, but any time anyone tried to bring up any complain against it, neither Aurora nor Maleficent ever felt any reason to respond. Perhaps Maleficent might curse them (in a non-permanent way, mind you) if they ever got too testy, but as far as Maleficent and Aurora concerned, they _were_ mother and daughter. They needed no bloodlines or legal work to make it as such, they just were, bound by heart and soul. They were bound by things more powerful and precious than paperwork. They were bound by love. And love what was made a family, so in the end, love was all that mattered.

"This is my mom," Aurora would say every time she introduced someone to Maleficent, and she never ceased to say it with so much love and pride and it made Maleficent feel just the same way.

"And this is my daughter," Maleficent would say every time she introduced someone to Aurora. And there would never be a day when that phrase didn't set off sparks in Aurora's chest or send happy chills down her spine.

Now, the old nicknames of "Beastie" and "Godmother" were not enough anymore, because they were even more than that. They were mother and daughter and they referred to one another as such.

"Hello, mother!" Aurora greeted Maleficent as she paid a visit to the kingdom.

"Hello, daughter," came the polite reply as Maleficent landed delicately in front of her child.

"Why do you call each other that?" a visiting dignitary asked in confusion. While Maleficent gave him a dangerous smile, Aurora was a bit more gentle. She knew that he meant no harm in the question. Since he did not live here, of course he didn't know Aurora and Maleficent's history. So Aurora was quick to fill him in, before Maleficent could try to teach him herself. Her lessons were always a bit more… rigorous, than Aurora's.

"I call her my mother because she is," the young queen said, smiling fondly at the older as she did so. She received a smile in return. "And now I know we may not exactly look alike, but she is still very much my mother and I am still very much her daughter. She raised me, and we look after each other and love each other and _that _is what a family is supposed to do. We are family. She is my mother. Maybe not through blood, but through love, and that, I think, is infinitely more important. She raised me. She was always there for me. Does that not make her my mother?"

And while the dignitary continued to try and wrap his mind around such a novel concept, Aurora flashed another smile at Maleficent who returned it once again. Although she did plan on tormenting the poor old dignitary later, she couldn't deny how much pride and joy it made her feel to hear Aurora call her a mother so freely. It was like a bragging right as far as Maleficent was concerned. And it went both ways too…

"That's right," she said, finally joining in the talk. "My daughter speaks wisely. She is my child not because I gave birth to her, but because I gave _life _to her. I raised her. I was the only one who was always there for her in the way she needed me. _That's_ what makes me her mother!" and the dignitary said nothing else on the matter, not wishing to upset the Mistress of All Evil. But said Mistress didn't seem too ferocious, at least not as long as she had her precious little Beastie, her daughter, by her side.

"As if I would be anywhere else!" Aurora smiled up at her mother, _yes, her mother_, and leaned affectionately on her arm.

"Good," Maleficent replied as she kissed her daughter, _yes, her daughter,_ on the forehead proudly. While the others watched in confusion and awe, Maleficent and Aurora had eyes only for each other because, in the end, they were what really mattered.

**AN: NGL, the moment when Aurora called Maleficent her mother and the moment when Maleficent called Aurora her daughter were literally my favorite parts in the whole film. I live for their mother-daughter relationship and those two moments were phenomenal. **

**And also, I will say that I sort of connect to this on a personal level. I feel like society and culture still places too much value on blood in terms of family. There are so many messages, both subtle and non, that make blood an important factor of family and I think that's just a bunch of BS. Family is not who you are related to or who you live around, it's who you love. Or at the very least, we need different words to differentiate the different types of family in the same way the Greeks had words for each type of love they felt. **

**As a kid who was adopted, I definitely think that the "blood is family" is BS and I strongly relate to Aurora here. I mean if you value your heritage, that's great, but I find it a bit sad when people place more value on their biological relatives than the people they grow to love as their life goes on. But that's just me. **


End file.
